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Chapter Text

“You can’t be serious!” Alex’s mouth had dropped open and she was looking between Alen Blunt and Mrs. Jones in alarm.

“Now Alex, I know this is less than ideal, but you must be trained properly. It will only be twelve days! It would be better if there was more time, but unfortunately, that’s something that we just don’t have.”

They had to be joking! It was a terrible joke and from what little time Alex had known them, she didn’t think that they were the types to make jokes, but this was just insane! They wanted to send Alex to an SAS training camp! The SAS, or the Special Air Service, was one of the toughest Special Operations units in not just the UK, but in the world! Did they even allow grown women in? Even if they did, she still wouldn’t qualify. Surely absolutely no one in the training program would have signed off on this…

But say they did agree, then Alex would be looking at spending almost two weeks surrounded by adult men and going through some of the most brutal training. There was no way that any of them could expect her to survive that! They’d said that this was what Ian would have wanted, but he never would have wanted this for her! If he had been training her all this time, Alex could be sure that he would have wanted her to finish secondary school at the very least first.

“I- I can’t!” Alex spluttered.

“Why not?” Blunt had spoken this time, his voice almost emotionless besides the hint of challenge hidden behind it. “You already agreed to go through with this. Need I remind you of what might happen to

“It’s only just that in case you didn’t notice, I’m a girl! I mean aside from how illegal this already is, would they even let me join?”

The sentence hadn’t even fully been said before Alex realized that it wouldn’t do any good. Blunt and Jones had made up their minds and MI6 could most likely pull as many strings as they wanted.

“I wouldn’t worry about that if I were you. The arrangements have already been made.”

“What if I want out or I can’t do it?”

Blunt’s face didn’t change, but Alex felt the air grow cold.

“Ms. Rider, we have already discussed your future earlier in the meal. Need I remind you that Ms. Starbright’s future and visa are just as, if not more so, in a precarious position as well? If you can’t pass, then I’m afraid that there will be nothing that I can do to help secure her future here with you.”

The threat was clear and it felt like rage was freezing her insides. How fucking dare they use Jack against her like this? What the fuck was wrong with these people?

“No, you don’t. I remember.” Alex bit out, staring daggers into the table. She couldn’t trust herself to look at either of the strangers seated in front of her and their cold, calculating eyes.

“Very good. You will leave immediately then!”

With that Alan Blunt rose from his seat and strode out the door. Mrs. Jones rose as well but hesitated for a moment looking at Alex with an emotion that looked suspiciously like guilt in her eyes.

“Alex,” She started awkwardly, “I know that this isn’t the most ideal situation and I never would be sending you there if there was another option, but there just isn’t anything else at this time and we can’t exactly wait for anything else.”

The woman paused and pursed her lips before continuing.

“The sergeant there is a good man. I’ve asked him to keep an eye on you, he probably would have even if I hadn’t. You won’t be babied in any way mind you, but if you need help or are having an issue with anyone, you can go to him and he will help you. There are also a few women mainly in administrative, training, and medical positions if you would be more comfortable talking with them.”

All Alex could do to that was nod and with that, Mrs. Jones left with a curt “Goodbye Alex” leaving the girl to her thoughts. Alex wasn’t entirely sure what Mrs. Jones had been on about, but she had some ideas and she didn’t particularly like the implications.

This was do or die now. Alex would just have to survive the next twelve days with the SAS and then another three days with Sayle. At least it might take some of the pressure off if she knew that she wasn’t trying to be the top of the class, hell she could be dead last in everything as long as it was possibly good enough she could survive this. They’d almost definitely not be holding her to the same standards as the rest of the trainees.

There had been backpacking trips with Jack and Ian. Jack and her father had taken Alex on one just last summer along part of the Appalachian trail in the United States for about a week while Ian had been away on one of his ‘business trips’. Over the years Alex had picked up some wilderness survival skills and had gotten quite good at navigating with only a map and compass. Beyond that, Alex was a first-grade dan in karate and could compete in gymnastics on a competitive level. Hopefully all those lessons and adventures would be enough to let Alex survive this.

—----

The training sergeant had been brought up to speed on her it seemed. The man didn’t look surprised at any rate. He also was pissed off, though whether it was at Alex or just in her general direction was a whole other matter.

“Do you know what you’ve gotten yourself into here girl? This isn’t ballet class, this isn’t maths, it’s a bloody SAS training program! No one’s going to hold your hand when you cross the street here, no one’s going to be going easy on you just because you’re a little girl. Do you understand that?”

“I didn’t ask to be here,” Alex said under her breath. Inside she was seething. She had always hated being talked down to and the condescending tone wasn’t doing any favors. It wasn’t anything that she hadn’t been expecting, at least he hadn’t outright been laughing in her face

“What was that? You don’t speak to me until you’re spoken to! And you are to refer to me as ‘sir’! Is that clear?”

Alex forced herself to meet his eyes.

“Yes sir.”

He was reminding her more and more of her geometry teacher, which was not a good sign. He had seemed to calm down a bit at least. They were now walking through the camp and towards a collection of small huts.

“Some of the men, if not all of them, will be hard on you, they may resent you. That’s too bad. We can make allowances for you on account of age and sex, but if you whine or cry or complain, if you can’t keep up, you’ll be binned! Do you understand me? Just know that I’d love nothing more than to see that happen. If it were up to me, you wouldn’t even be here in the first place.”

They were on the same page in that regard in at any rate Alex thought dispassionately. She had had to restrain herself from saying that part out loud but refrained from it on account of not wanting to be shouted at again.

Now they were standing outside of a hut that Alex assumed was where she’d be staying for the next two weeks or so. She couldn’t say that she was looking forward to introductions. The sergeant threw the door open and marched in with Alex at his heels. There were four men sitting in companionable silence. They looked up and Alex could see the visible confusion on their faces the moment that they noticed her.

“On your feet! Gentlemen, this is our latest recruit. There have been special orders directly from the top. She’s got a mission coming up and needs to be brought to date with training requirements before that.”

He paused to take a breath and then began to address Alex.

“We have names or ranks here, only codenames.” Pointing at the men in turn he began listing them off. There were Eagle, Snake, Fox, and Wolf. Then he got to Alex. “You’ll be Kit.”

The sergeant turned to leave, but then stopped.

“And someone get her a bed!”

After the sergeant left, Alex was left standing awkwardly in front of the four men. Wolf, a man with dark hair and a face that would have been handsome except for a slightly crooked nose, spoke first.

“A bloody schoolgirl! I can’t believe this.”

He spoke with a slightly foreign sounding accent and his face had twisted into a frown and his dark eyes full of disbelief with just a touch of malice. He had moved closer to her.

“What’s your name? Who the hell sent you here?”

“I can’t tell you that.” Had he not heard the sergeant? Alex glanced around. The other men were standing around. None of them were stepping in on either Alex’s or Wolf’s side. Fox and Eagle were watching the events with detached interest and Snake looked apprehensive, like he wanted to say or do something, but was unsure of whether or not it was worth it.

Wolf was undeterred by her answer and grabbed her.

“Of course you can! So, who was it? Special Operations I’d bet.”

That was the moment when Alex’s training instincts finally kicked in. She aimed a well placed kick into the man’s gut. He fell back and onto his knees winded. After taking a minute to catch his breath, Wolf spoke again.

“Looks like you’ve been learning some self-defense, eh Kit? Well it’s not going to be much use to you now. You won’t last two days here at most!”

Alex would have been inclined to agree, but the man had pissed her off. It had now become a point of pride for Alex and she refused to let any of those assholes in front of her be proved right! There was absolutely no reason for her to think that, but it made no difference. In the end if it got her through this, Alex would make do with what she could.

Chapter Text

Snake felt deeply uncomfortable. He knew long before he had been accepted into SAS training that this was a feeling that he would have to be used to. Beacon Brecons was a Spec-Ops training center, not a god-damn kindergarten! It was the trainers’ job to ensure that they were all as uncomfortable as possible. But this, this was different.

There was a small, blonde girl, who had been given the code-named ‘Kit’, sitting on a spare cot that had just been squeezed into a corner of the small hut that K-Unit had been assigned to, sitting cross-legged reading some training manual.

She hadn’t exactly said anything about who she was or why she was here, but the sergeant had said in passing something about training and an upcoming mission that she had been assigned. Though he didn’t know her age exactly, he was certain that she couldn’t have been younger than thirteen or older than fifteen. Too young to be enlistment age without a doubt. Much too young to be at an SAS training camp and far too young to be sent on any sort of mission for that matter.

But beyond the legality of it all, the whole situation was just wholly inappropriate. There were already very few women at Beacon Brecons; for that matter, they were mostly trainers or admin in the first place, but still, it would have been much better for Kit to be put with them instead of a hut with four grown men. He sensed that the rest of his unit was feeling much the same as him in this regard. This was no place for a little girl.

They would all be living in close proximity with one another for the next two weeks or so and none of them were looking forward to it. Where even were her parents in this? Or any reasonable adult for that matter? What parent would be ok with their daughter being put in this situation or any child regardless of their gender?

The whole thing was just mad, that’s what this was. Pure and utter madness. Even the adult women who had made it to selection against all the odds generally wound up getting binned not too long after! What chance would this child have? She didn’t even look like she weighed more than his pack…

There was no way she could carry a 55 kg pack for 16 kilometers through rough terrain and make it within the prescribed time limit. There might be allowances made for her. There better be allowances made for her. If pushed too hard, the chances of Kit getting seriously, possibly permanently, injured, or even killed were much higher for her than for any of them. There were other dangers as well, but Snake refused to think about them.

It had been about forty-five minutes since Kit had come in and since the introductions and Wolf’s attempted interrogation, there has been an uncomfortable silence. Wolf hadn’t been the most gentle about asking his questions. It seemed to Snake that he had been trying to scare the hell out of the girl. He hadn’t stepped in though. Maybe he should have, but he didn’t.

‘Double-oh-seven? Double-oh-nothing more like!’ Wolf had said to Snake and the others several minutes after Kit had arrived. She had overheard them and Snake saw her shoulders tense slightly, but other than that, she hadn’t reacted.

Snake had to admit that ‘Double-oh-nothing’ was pretty funny. It might not have been the nicest thing to say, but since when has Wolf ever bothered concerning himself with niceness? Wolf was a great leader and wasn’t a bad guy by any means, but he was more than a little rough around the edges.

Part of him was hoping that Wolf would be able to scare the girl into dropping out. And the sooner the better. Beyond concern for Kit’s well-being, Snake still had to think about himself and the rest of the squad. They had almost reached the end of their training, but there were still a lot of opportunities for something to go wrong and end with them being binned and that was not an option for any of them. They had all come too far for all of their hard work to be messed up by some kid who, regardless of whatever the higher-ups said or thought, had no business here.

To add insult to injury, the four official members of K-Unit had all been through hell to be here on so many different levels, this girl had just been dropped in and almost definitely hadn’t put in the blood, sweat, and tears as everyone else here- not that that was her fault not should she have at her age- regardless, there was bound to be more than a little resentment directed her way warranted or not.

Snake glanced over at Wolf as he took out a fresh cigarette. Smoking might not be the healthiest habit, but he needed this right now. They had also spent enough time together for Snake to pick up on the more subtle expressions and tells of the rest of his unit. Wolf wasn’t just uncomfortable, he was closer to disturbed by the situation. But above all, he was angry. Snake knew very little about his unit mates’ lives outside of the military- he didn’t even know their first names for god sake- but from the little he did know about Wolf was that he had several younger siblings, the youngest of which was only about twelve. Kit probably wasn’t a twelve year old which was something at least, but the fact that she was as young as she was in the first place would be affecting the man.

He took another look at Kit. She appeared quite unphased at first glance, but he could see beneath the calm veneer she was just as, if not more, uncomfortable with this arrangement as the rest of K-Unit, but she wasn’t complaining. She was still reading that training manual. Her hair was pulled back into a military bun and for the first time, Snake noticed the small, black stud earrings in her ears and made a small mental note. They were the types a lot of women in the military wore and were unobtrusive enough that they shouldn’t cause any issues. Nonetheless, there was always a chance of infection or them getting caught on something.

On a similar note of medical preparedness, there were the matters of all the medical conditions that women in the military tended to experience such as UTIs, iron deficiencies, and reproductive diseases, on top of all that there was also menstruation.

It was Snake’s job as the medic to make sure that his unit would be kept at peak physical (and mental) wellness. Presumably, she would have been provided with the appropriate supplies needed, or even be on birth control for that matter, but he still needed to keep that in consideration and if there was birth control in the mix, while that could handle one problem, there were still complications and considerations to be had there as well. That wasn’t even considering pain medications. The last thing that he wanted was to accidentally cause the girl to have some sort of reaction or medical emergency.

Snake had grown up with two sisters, one older and one younger, and having mostly female cousins and he was also a medic. It was just something to be taken into consideration. It didn’t change the fact that this wasn’t something that Snake wanted to talk to Kit about considering how personal it was and how young his new unit-member seemed to be. Doubtless, Kit would also be feeling the same way if not more so.

He would receive a health form at some point undoubtedly and he’d just get all the information he needed then. No need to make an awkward situation any worse than it already is. Besides, the girl would most likely be gone by the end of three days tops and he wouldn’t even need to worry about it.

At the end of the day, no matter what the heads of SO or whoever thought, Kit was just a kid facing two weeks in one of the toughest training programs in the world. It was meant to push even the strongest of grown men to their breaking point and past that event. There was no way. There was no fucking way. She’d be binned or would walk out of her own volition before too long, then there’d be one less thing for him to worry about on top of everything else.

That was what Snake told himself at any rate.

Chapter Text

They had sent them a bloody schoolgirl! Not just any schoolgirl, but a damn annoying one at that. It had been three days yet she’d somehow not been binned. When he first saw Kit, he was shocked, to say the least. Not only had a girl been dropped into the middle of a boot camp, but it was a bloody SAS boot camp!

What were they thinking?

At first glance, he had thought that Kit was twelve, just like his youngest sibling Isabel. But on closer examination she was older, most likely about fourteen or fifteen, still horrifyingly young, but at least he didn’t have to do SAS training with someone who could for all intents and purposes be his kid sister. Isabel was one of the meanest people he knew, not to others, only him, but Wolf permitted it anyway. She could make a great drill sergeant if she ever decided to join the military…

That first day, he’d tried to scare the little brat off. Fat lot of good that had done him, she’d kicked him in the stomach hard when he’d grabbed her and he still had the bruise to show for it. Maybe he’d gone a bit far there, if he’d been in the same situation, he’d have done the same or worse to the other person.

But that wasn’t the point.

There was no way that she’d be able to keep up on even a simple jog, much less one of the survival hikes or obstacle courses. It was suicide! It would only be a matter of time…

And in that time, how much damage could she do to his and the rest of the unit's track record? They’d be binned for sure. This was an act of sabotage! It had to be a test that had to be the only reason. No one in their right mind would send some teenage kid on a mission of any kind outside of having them go to the store to get some milk or something.

But somehow, she had kept up with them. On the obstacle course, the marches, climbs, hikes, and essentially every other section of their training. Hell, she’d even held her own against grown men over twice her size in hand to hand combat training and got back up for more when she had been knocked down. Kit may not have been the best by any means, but Wolf was begrudgingly forced to admit that the kid was good. That only made him angrier.

The brat still had no right to be here and even though she’d made it this far, that didn’t mean that she belonged. Kit’s presence was an inslut to the SAS. If it ever got out that some little girl could keep up with them and even come close to beating so much as one of them in a fight, then their reputation would be finished. They’d never be taken seriously ever again!

Even if Kit did make it through the training and went onto her mission, nobody would be using the kiddy-gloves when dealing with her. In short, wether she realized it or not, Kit was going into a world of adults who wouldn’t see or treat her as a child. If she got caught, the consequences would be fatal. Wolf didn’t know if Kit had relized that she wasn’t invincible or just what kind of hell she’d most likely experience, but better for her to lose that arrogance now or even better yet, get her to quit while she was ahead.

That was his original plan at any rate, the only problem was that Wolf hadn’t expected the little brat to be so resiliant or prideful. It was infuriating! She was a teenager, but refused to act like it! A teenager was supposed to be whiney, rebellious, and altogether, an total pest, yet Kit was quiet and never complained. At least she still had an attitude and talked back. That was normal teenager behavior, not the whole robot act she had a tendency to put on.

Wolf knew that he wasn’t acting like the professional he was in this situation, but he just couldn’t help himself. This whole situation was wrong and there was nothing that he could do to make it anyless fucked up. He’d already been to the sergeant about it and tried to tell him that Kit would not part of his unit and had no place here, but the older man had shut him down immediately and shouted at him to ‘shut up and deal with it’.

But he stead fastly refused to. As long as Kit was here, Wolf swore that he’d make sure that girl knew that she didn’t belong at Brecon Beacons, in the SAS, or in whatever insane mission or whatever was actually happening. Like it or not, Kit was just some snot-nosed little girl who should be in classes and getting in trouble for whatever dumb teenaged bullshit normal kids got into, not playing grown-up before her time.

He thought back to Isabel. If she was in Kit’s place, he might not have wanted her to has someone treat her the way that he treated Kit, but if it kept her safe and out of harm’s way… well, whatever worked worked he guessed.

Chapter Text

Alex had never hated her life more than she did in this moment. She was sore, tired, hungry, dirty, and thirsty. If it hadn’t been for the caffeine and glucose tablets she’d been given Alex was sure to have been past out by now.

She let out an irritated huff as she brushed a loose strand off hair out of her eyes and went back to navigate with the map and compass that had been given to her earlier that day, though it felt closer to a hundred years since she’d first set off in Alex’s mind. Of course K-Unit had

Finally Alex stumbled her way into the clearing and saw the sergeant standing smoking a cigerette. He looked up and noticed her, then he looked down at his watch nodding approvingly.

“Ten hours and thirty-five minutes, not bad Kit. The rest of your unit made it here three hours ago.”

‘Well, bully for them…’ Alex thought sourly.

“They’re at the top of the climbing wall, you’d better get to it then!”

As the man said that Alex stared up and the grey, almost entirely flat rock face and felt a surge of hopelessness and exhaustion wash over her. All Alex wanted to do right now was to fall to her knees and cry and scream and be binned so she could go back home and cuddle up with Jack on the sofa under a nice, warm blanket. Alex wanted the reassurance that everything was going to be alright, but that would never happen here. In that moment Alex knew something she’d always known from when she’d first set foot into this godforsaken training camp; she couldn’t do it. And Alex said as much.

“I can’t do it.”

“What was that?” The sergent’s eyes narrowed and his voice took on a gruff, tone.

“I- I’m sorry, I just can’t do it, sir.” Alex cringed at how her words had stumbled over one another. She sounded just as pathetic as she felt. She’d failed Jack and Ian would be so disappointed in her. It wasn’t like Alex had asked for any of this, but that didn’t matter anymore, perhaps it never had.

“We don’t use that word around here Kit. Now, as I was saying before; the rest of your unit has already made it up the rock face and have set up camp.”

The sergeant’s tone softened just barely. He gently grabbed her shoulder and traced a path up the rockface with his finger that she could take and continued on talking.

“You’ve already made it this far and if it were me, I’d say there’s no point in throwing in the towel just quite yet. ‘Sides, there’s some nice, cold rations for your dinner and I know that you don’t want to miss out on that, now do you Kit.”

Alex shook her head.

“No sir.”

“Good. Now get to it! I expect you to make it up in double time!”

“Yes sir, right away sir.” Alex mumbled and stepped forward and almost immediately stumbled, having to put out a hand against the sergeant to stop herself from faceplanting in the mud.

“Sorry sir.” By now her voice was little more than a whisper, for a moment Alex thought that the sergeant was about to rip her head off, but was pleasantly surprised when he didn’t.

“No problem. Now get to it Kit, we both know you can do this. Don’t prove me wrong.”

With that, Alex set off to climb her way up the grey, almost totally flat-looking surface before her. Between this and Blunt, grey was becoming her least favorite color.

—----

To be honest, there was more struggling and clawing than actual climbing happening, but after about thirty minutes there Alex was. Then walked another thirty minutes to where the rest of K-Unit had set up. There were three tents, the two bigger ones would be for Fox, Eagle, Snake, and Wolf to split up in and the third, smallest tent was undoubtably hers. None of the men had wanted to share with her and Alex had absolutely no complaints with that.

As she got closer, she saw that Wolf was trying unsuccessfully to start an impromptu fire, they hadn’t been allowed to use matches or lighters in the spirit of this being a survival hike. Once Alex was closer, the men took notice of her presence and looked up.

“Didn’t think you’d make it Kit!” Snake said smiling, the warmth in the Scotsman’s voice was evident and Alex found herself smile back at him and respond in kind.

“I didn’t think so either.”

She was almost at her tent when she turned around and pulled something small and shiny out of her pocket. Alex hadn’t had to fake the stumble, but it didn’t hurt her pocketing the sergeant’s lighter. For a moment or so, Alex seriously considered keeping quiet and letting Wolf struggle with starting a fire for a while longer, but she was cold and wet and wasn’t that cruel.

Wolf caught the lighter thrown to him and he along with the rest of the unit looked at the girl in amazement.

“Is that the sergeant’s lighter?” Fox asked incredulously.

“Yep.”

“How-”

“Doesn’t matter. Let me know when you’ve got a fire going, will you?”

With that, Alex climbed into her tent and sat down for the first time that day. She was more sore and tired than she felt she had ever been today, but she was still alive and this wasn’t over yet!

Chapter Text

It had been over a week now and Kit was still there. By all means, she should have been gone in less than twenty-four hours, but his gut had told him that he and his unit wouldn’t be rid of the girl that easily. Despite the odds and against all logic, Kit was somehow managing to keep up with them on hikes and runs.

It was night now and Eagle was lying in his bunk. He knew that he should be sleeping, he was severely in need of a good night's rest, but his brain just wouldn’t shut off. He was looking around the room save for the bed squeezed into the corner furthest from him. More specifically the person who was sleeping there.

When Kit had first been brought in, Eagle had felt like he was having a bloody stroke. Once the shock had worn off, however, curiosity had taken over. The sergeant had said the kid had a mission coming up. Eagle wanted to know the details. What kind of mission could a teen girl be needed for? Maybe posing as some adult agent or agents’ kid? But if that was the case, then why would they send her to SAS for training? It just didn’t add up to him, but there was no other reason that he could think of that she would be here. There was no way it would be for the hell of it…

Kit rolled over in her sleep. Now she was lying on her back facing up at the ceiling. Her arms were a patchwork of cuts and bruises, nothing major, but definitely noticeable. She had impressed him on the obstacle course yesterday. Kit had completed it in only seventeen minutes, down from the twenty-eight minutes it had been on her first go-round. Even Wolf had only managed it in twelve minutes. The sergeant would never admit it, but Eagle could tell that he was also extremely impressed. He managed to hide it by shouting at the girl for stumbling over a rock about thirty seconds later though.

Another thing that impressed him about Kit was how she never complained or cried no matter how brutal the training got. Nor when she got pushed and shoved around by the others. Just two days ago now, they had crossed an unstable rope bridge high above a mud pit and as Kit went across, Wolf had caused her to lose her footing and fall all the way down. She had crawled out fine enough but had had to deal with one of the training sergeants shouting at her for ‘clumsiness’ and had to endure mocking laughter from the men around her.

He had been sure that the girl would start crying then. Not only was it a serious hit to the ego, but even as a grown man, it was terrifying to get a dressing down from a sergeant in any circumstance. Even more so in front of near twenty witnesses. Kit hadn’t done that though. She had simply stood there and took it then went back to redo the assignment.

Despite her reaction to the sergeant, Kit wasn’t a pushover by any means, more that she just knew how to shut up and swallow her pride when she needed to. That was a skill that many of the men here hadn’t learned yet at any rate. Kit would let the sergeants shout in her face, but when someone tried to mess with her, the claws were out. Eagle still wasn’t over how she’d kicked Wolf that first day.

Maybe he should have stepped in to help her out, or at the very least tell Wolf to lay off her a bit, but he just never could bring himself to. In the end, if Kit got binned, then so much the better for him. After all, it wasn’t babysitting duty, the kid clearly didn’t need to have her nappies changed or anything. Besides, if Kit was actually going to be going on out on some kind of mission, she might as well know how to deal with that kind of bullshit.

More recently one of the guys from M-Unit had made the mistake of saying a mocking comment about her within ear ranged. Something about how she never was at shooting practice and why that might have been, to be honest, Eagle hadn’t really been paying all that much attention and it was in the mess hall. Nobody could really hear anything in that place. In anycase, the man, Shark, had left with a lot less of an ego and a nice bruise on his cheek to go with it. That had provided some good entertainment and didn’t hurt Eagle’s steadily growing respect.

Then there was the survival hike they’d all had to endure. Kit had been the last to show up by about an hour, no surprises there, but what had been a surprise was her pickpocketing the sergeant’s damn lighter! How the actual fuck had she managed to get that close in the first place? Where did that kid even learn how to pickpocket and why would she need to? All that just went to show the kid wasn’t helpless like Snake seemed to think…

That thought didn’t do much to quell the gnawing feeling of guilt and wrongness in his gut at the whole situation. On the other hand, how much could he even actually do? If he said anything, he might only make things worse and truth be told, he didn’t want to have that much to do with the kid in the first place. She was a nice enough kid and Eagle actually found himself quite liking her strong personality, but Kit was still much too young for any of this training, and he didn’t much fancy himself befriending some random child.

What struck him as he went over his memory of Kit’s training with them had to was the only part she hadn’t been there for. Kit didn’t join them for was shooting practice. Apparently it was fine to put the girl in with SAS recruits and send her out on some mission, but having her shoot a gun was just too much for someone’s delicate sensibilities up in SO. Typical. Send the girl in without knowing how to properly defend herself if she ever got into a situation that she couldn’t kick her way out of-

There was a loud snore from Fox’s bunk jerking Eagle back to reality. He really should get some sleep while he still had the chance…

Eagle rolled onto his back with one arm settled under his head and the other on his stomach. He glanced back at Kit.

The first night, Kit had hit the showers and passed out almost instantly long before the rest of the Unit, or camp for that matter, had. They’d gone about doing what they normally did, trying to pretend that the figure on the fifth bed didn’t exist, while still occasiounly casting surreptisious looks towards the corner of the hut. After about an hour, Snake had broken the unspoken rule of not acknowledging the new occupant.

“She looks so peaceful…”

No one had said anything to it then, but Eagle thought back to that moment now as he twisted his head just enough to see the part of Kit’s face semi-illuminated by moonlight. The Scotsman had been right and her face looked just as peaceful then as it did now. Eagle couldn’t help but wonder just how much longer she’d be able to remain like that.

Chapter Text

Alex started when she felt the hands drag her out of bed and into the cold night air. She opened her mouth to scream, but one of the hands clamped over her mouth muffling her and when she tried to bite the hand all she got for it was a slap across the face hard. Vaguely she heard laughter and an unfamiliar voice say something garbled.

She was dragged out of the hut and through the cold night air and mud. It was very foggy out making visibility difficult, the loose strands of hair falling into her face didn’t help much either, but Alex could see a lot of activity. There were spotlights, military trucks, and soldiers swarming all over the place. This could mean only two things.

The first option, there had been an attack and the camp had been taken over by enemy soldiers. Aside from being extremely unsavory, it was highly unlikely to have happened.

The second option was equally unwelcome and all too likely. RTI, or Resistance to Interrogation. Alex tried to breathe. They couldn’t actually hurt, hurt them, they’d be roughed up a bit sure, but there’d be no actual long-lasting harm done. Besides it could only last for about forty-eight hours at a time tops! All Alex had to do was keep quiet and not tell them anything except her codename. She could do that, she could do that no problem.

Alex saw Wolf getting dragged along like her, although he looked much worse with a split lip and black eye. She caught his eye and saw the fear in his eyes. Not a good sign…

They were still dragging her when they entered the first administrative building and then into a concrete room furnished only with a singular light bulb hanging directly over a metal chair. They had really outdone themselves. The room looked like it could have come straight out of a kidnapper’s interior design magazine or some shitty, low-budget show’s sad attempt at an interrogation scene.

Roughly, Alex was shoved into the chair and before she could get her bearings or fight back, two of the men had gotten to work securing her arms behind her back and her legs to the chair. There were four men total in the room between her and the door, even if she did manage to get her hands free, she’d still have to fight her way through, and she didn’t her odds right now. The leader stepped into the light and for the first time Alex could see that they all wore balaclavas to hide their faces, but beneath that, Alex could make out smirks and felt their eyes drill into every part of her being.

It was ominous, but there was no way in hell that Alex was going to give them the satisfaction of seeing any fear or discomfort, at least she’d been wearing a bra underneath her long-sleeved shirt she’d worn to sleep, which made her feel a little bit better. The same could be said about the shorts. She straightened in her seat and went back to trying to control her breathing. That’s when it started. The first one to speak was the man that Alex decided had to be the leader.

“Well, well, well lads, what do we have ourselves here?” He jeered at her and moved uncomfortably close so that he stood directly behind her. “What’s a girl like you doing here, huh? Didn’t anyone ever tell you what happens to the pretty girls in military camps? Or maybe they did and you’ve just been enjoying all the attention.”

The other men were laughing at what their leader had said and Alex felt her face go bright red and her breath caught in her throat. She’d prepared herself for getting hit and threatened, to be insulted, to see the rest of K-Unit being tortured, but not this. This was unexpected, from what she knew about RTI, women sometimes experienced this, but they were grown women. Not that it made it any better or more acceptable, no matter what this was horrible. Yet somehow Alex had been expecting her age to protect her. All the bullying that she’d experienced thus far had been more or less gender-neutral and never came close to touching whatever this was…

Maybe ‘touching’ wasn’t the best word to use. Alex almost laughed at the ridiculousness of it all before she caught herself. Laughing might make them think that they were right, any reaction was dangerous for that matter. It seemed the noise that Alex made was taken as a gasp or sound of disgust.

“Come on sweetheart, don’t be shy! ‘Bet you loved it! You know, we could show you an even better time… all you’d have to do is tell us your name.”

Alex didn’t say anything. So this was it, they were just trying to destabilize her. That was all, they couldn’t be serious. She took deep breaths and centered herself just like Ian taught her how to do before a karate or gymnastics competition. And it worked, for a moment at any rate.

“I bet a pretty girl like you has an even prettier name, why don’t you tell us? We’re all just dying to know…” Another one of the men stepped forward and grabbed her hair pulling her face up towards his. “Or you could always not. There are other things we can do!”

“Kit. That’s my name. Kit.”

It might be her codename, but it also could still feasibly be her real name. Hopefully, they weren’t too bright and it would be enough to get them to fuck off.

“Nice try, but you’ll have to try harder than that!” The man behind her said emphasizing the word ‘harder’ by thrusting his pelvis against the back of the chair. Alex felt gross, there was no reason for her to be the one feeling gross, but she did. At that moment, Alex wanted nothing more than to curl up into a ball and disappear into the ground. But that wasn’t an option and she still couldn’t get her hands free! “Now let’s try again ‘Kit’; what’s your name? The real one.”

“Yeah, I want to know what I’m gonna be groaning later!” That was a different voice. The tone as much as the words sent shudders up Alex’s spine. How could anyone say that? More than anything Alex almost wished that she’d given up during the survival hike. No matter what happened to her or Jack, it had to be better than what was happening now, but it was too late to change that. All she could do was grit her teeth and deal with it.

“I told you. It’s Kit.” For what it was worth, Alex kept the shaking out of her voice. That was something.

The leader was getting impatient. He’d thought that the girl would break within the first minute, but here she was, voice steady and sticking to the fake name. That being said, however, he thought he could hear a hint of a tremble in her voice. Now they were getting somewhere!

“If you’d only just cooperate and be a good girl this could be over in only a few seconds. Come one ‘Kit’, we all know that’s not your real name. Don’t worry, you can trust me! I don’t bite much…”

—----

The interrogation continued on for what felt like hours, although it was most likely one hour at most, and throughout that time, the comments never let up. At first, touching was minimal. When they did, it was to hit her or pull her head up to look at them or to shake her to keep her focused. But as time went on, they started focusing more and more on her body. One of her least favorite quotes from her interrogation was said by the taller of the two men who’d dragged her to this hell.

“Your chest may be disappointing, but don’t worry; I don’t care.”

He had a hand placed firmly on one of her breasts. They had forced her to remove the shirt, but, much to Alex’s relief, had let her keep the bra and shorts in place. If they hadn’t then that would have been the final straw for her.

“Do you realize ‘Kit’, we can do whatever we want to you right now? And I mean whatever.” The man sneered down at her. There might have been a glint of disgust in his eyes, but who or what it was directed at was anyone’s guess.

Alex knew what they were trying to achieve, they wanted to humiliate her. It wasn’t just an interrogation technique, it was also a favorite of bullies all over the world and in all different contexts.

“Nobody is going to get you out of here. It’s all up to you. The only way that you can do that is if you tell us your real name. Better yet, your unit-mates’ real names as well. I know you don’t want to keep doing this.” There was something close to tenderness in his voice now. Maybe he genuinely wanted to help her get out of here, more likely it was just another trick. Get her to think that he was on her side, then pull the rug out from under her when she’d given all the information they wanted to know.

How long had it been again? There was no way of keeping track of time or if the weather had changed… if it was still foggy and Alex managed to escape, maybe that could be used to her advantage! Briefly, Alex wondered about the rest of K-Unit. What was happening to them? Thinking back to Wolf and his injuries, Alex could make some educated guesses.

Hopefully, they wouldn’t know what was happening to Alex. It was clear they already thought very little of her and the last thing she wanted was for them to look down on her for complaining about something like this. If they were getting beat up or water boarder or tortured and all she had to put up with was some weird comments and the occasional hit, well there was nothing that she had any right to be complaining about no matter how terrible she felt in the moment.

(Later on, Alex would realize that that wasn’t true, but it wouldn’t come to her until several months had passed and she was on a completely different continent.)

The process continued and all Alex told them was her codename. Eventually, they seemed to have gotten tired of her and uncuffed her hands and legs and had her pull her shirt back on. By that point, Alex recognized that now wasn’t the time to make her escape. They said they were taking her to a cell, so once she was there she’d be able to find a way out. Besides, at the moment she was too tired and shaken to make a successful escape attempt, so let them drag her back through the mud and towards an old barn with a brick chimney sticking out of the roof.

—----

The two men tossed her into the cell as if she was nothing but a bag of dirty laundry. When she fell, Alex hit her head on the stone floor hard. Not hard enough to do any damage, but more than enough to make her lose her bearings for a minute or two and for there to be black spots in her vision.

Vaugley, Alex heard one of them, most likely the shorter one, shout “Here’s something for you a lot to play with! We’ve already had our turns!” and the other, probably the taller one, follow up with “Have fun with her lads!”, with that, the door swung shut and Alex heard the sound of laughter and a series of clicking noises that left little doubt that they had locked her in with whoever else was stuck here with her.

Much to Alex’s relief, they’d put her in with the rest of K-Unit. None of them looked too badly hurt, Fox looked the roughest of them though. He had blood dripping down from his nose, his shirt was drenched, and his face, neck, and arms were all bruised up. To be fair, all of them had bruises and Wolf also looked like he’d been waterboarded as well, but they didn’t have the blood covering their face and staining their shirts.

She also didn’t miss their expressions when they heard the soldiers’ comments. The looks of horror and disgust made it all the worst. If they hadn’t had any reaction to it, she could pretend it never happened. At least they didn’t laugh with the soldiers…

Alex felt the humiliation and blush come back in force, what had been implied wasn’t something she wanted to dwell on. Fox was the first one to speak and walked over to help her up.

“You alright Kit? Did they… do anything to you? You know what that was about? Why they said that I mean?”

His voice was concerned and he was deliberately broadcasting every movement to her almost as though he was worried that she’d attack him.

“Yeah- Yeah, I’m good. I’ve got no idea what that was, they didn’t say or do anything like that when I was getting interrogated.” It was a total lie, but there was no way in hell that Alex was going to open herself up like that to them.

None of them looked fully convinced. Snake had made his way over to her and Fox while Alex had been talking and was now leaning over trying to examine her for any injuries.

“Kit, are you sure about that? You’re not in trouble, you’ve done nothing wrong. If you don’t want to talk now, that’s fine, but you need to tell me.” Snake’s voice was also full of concern, but also held a steely, business-like tone that Alex had started to think of as his ‘medic-voice’. “Now, are you hurt? It looked like you fell pretty hard there.”

“I’m positive. Now, this is RTI training, right? -Get off me, I can walk just fine on my own!- Who are the soldiers and is there an escape plan yet?” Alex brushed away Snake and Fox as she began to move around the room examining it carefully. The windows were too small and had bars on them and the door was too strong, that left the chimney. She stopped at the wall furthest from the door and started tapping. Alex wasn’t particularly fond of the idea of shimmying up the narrow column of brick and ash, but it was better than going through another interrogation. Anything was better than that.

“Green Jackets, they’re a local regiment. They hate us ‘cause we’re the best, they love this.” Wolf had spoken up, his tone was coarse. “Better yet, if any of us say anything, the whole unit gets binned. That just makes them love this more that does. Bet you blabbed to them, Kit. We’ll all be binned ‘cause of you!”

Fox and Snake just stared incredulously at Wolf and Alex let out an irritated sigh.

“Wolf! Is now really the best time?” It was the first time Eagle had spoken. For the most part, he had remained in his place on the metal bench observing and looking noticeably concerned.

“What? I just want to know if we’re getting binned or not!”

“No, of course I didn’t say anything to them! Now,” Alex stopped in front of a panel of wall and kicked it hard. Fortunately, the wall gave way easily to the kick leaving a clear view of the old fireplace and their way out of this test. “Help me clear this!”

The four men glanced at each other and hurried over to assist their youngest teammate in clearing the debris.

“How did you even know this was here?”

“I saw the chimney on my way in here and figured that it could be the way out of here.”

“Kit, if they thought that someone could fit up there they wouldn’t have left it for us to escape through.”

“The Green Jackets were expecting only grown men, not a teenage girl. You lot couldn’t fit, but I definitely can. Trust me; it’ll work!”

It was true and none of them were in the mood to argue with the kid.

“Alright,” Snake sighed reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small torch. “You’d better take this then. You’re lucky I always sleep with it in my pocket. Just make sure to give it back!”

“Cheers!”

And with that, Alex was off.

—----

As predicted, it wasn’t a pleasant experience to climb up the chimney, but at least it was relatively straightforward. Not that there weren’t several moments of panic where she had almost lost her footing or felt as though she was about to get stuck. The torch Snake had given her was coming in handy, Alex had it clamped between her teeth and though she tried to look up as little as possible to keep the soot from blinding her, it made her feel better just to have some sort of light on her. After approximately three minutes, Alex pulled herself into the fresh night air and started coughing as quietly as possible to clear her lungs.

It was a relief, to say the least, Alex was sure that she looked a mess, but she could always clean up later. Right now her objective was to get the rest of K-Unit out of their cell. Scanning the terrain, Alex began to formulate a plan.

They’d left a single soldier to guard the cell while the rest had gone into a caravan-like mobile command center. It was parked on a slant leading to a cliff overlooking a lake, even better it was on wheels. It would be very easy to take away the stop and it wouldn’t make a bad distraction for the guard either… A malicious grin steadily spread across Alex’s face. It was payback time!

—----

The soldier was distracted which made it quite easy for Alex to slip by him and then make her way toward the mobile command center. While doing so, she grabbed a rusted metal pole from the ground and carried it with her. Not only could it make a good impromptu lock, but if someone managed to sneak up behind her, it would make an even better-improvised weapon. As Alex crept along the side of the caravan, she was able to hear the sounds of laughter and voices inside, four of which sounded all too familiar.

“-had a girl with them! I mean a bloody teen girl!”

More laughter as if he had said something clever. The door swung open and someone threw the contents of a mug out onto the grass.

“A bit young to be part of Special Forces isn’t she?” The man said, “And no dick to boot? Woulda thought that was a requirement to join the SAS, but, well, you’ve seen the rest of that lot.”

More laughter as the door swung firmly shut. Alex moved into a low crouch. Now would be the perfect time to spring forward and stick the pole into place through the door’s handle. They’d moved on to talking about the interrogations now. She looked down at the block meant to prevent the caravan from rolling off the cliff. Was this a good idea? Sure they were arseholes, but they were just doing their jobs…

“I say we start with the girl. She’ll be the easiest to break.”

“I don’t know… she held up when we were in with her. Better to use her to break the rest of the unit. Come to think of it, might be easier to break her in front of the unit.”

“Yeah, or break her neck!”

“Be an easy shag at any rate!”

The laughter rose again and all guilt or pity Alex might have felt for them was washed away. Before she knew it, the pole was through the handle locking the Green Jackets in and the block had been removed. All it took was one good push to get the mobile command unit moving then gravity took care of the rest.

It took a few seconds, but eventually, they realized something was wrong and that’s when the shouting started. Despite its obvious wear and tear, the pole held up the Green Jackets’ attempts to open the door. One of them spotted Alex standing in the same place she had been when she had pushed the caravan and put two and two together, his expression was priceless! All Alex did was smile and wave as they rolled faster and faster to the edge. The guard noticed what was happening to his colleagues and ran to assist them, but it was already too late. With that, Alex’s smile only grew as she skipped over to the door of her unit’s improvised cell and picked the lock with ease. The men came out of the cell on high alert searching for any potential threats.

“What happened to the guards?” Wolf asked suspiciously. He’d stepped out the furthest and had noticed the the tracks left from the caravan rolling off the cliff and the soldier panicking trying to figure out how to help his comrades. Fox and Snake had noticed too. Fox was doubled over laughing and Snake was trying to hide a smile.

“It looks like they’ve sloped off!” Alex responded nonchalantly. Revenge sure was sweet!

Chapter Text

When they had dragged Ben from bed and into the interrogation room, he’d been too full of adrenaline to think about his other unit mates. From the very start, the Green Jackets had held no restraint when it came to beating the shit out of him. At the current moment, Ben lay flat on a cold metal table with his hands handcuffed uncomfortably beneath him and a dirty rag thrown over his nose and mouth. Two of the soldiers were holding him down while a third stood over him with a bucket of water.

There was the metallic taste of blood still lingering in his mouth. The Green Jackets had hit him on the nose hard which could either have been several minutes to several hours ago. Ben was unsure whether or not it was broken. He’d have to get Snake to check it out the first chance he got. It was disgusting, but at least it gave him something to focus on.

“This can stop anytime you want Foxy! All you have to do is tell us your name. It’s not that difficult! At this point, you’re only doing this to yourself. So, what is it? What’s your name?”

“Fox.”

The bucket of ice cold water came pouring over him and panic filled Ben’s lungs and body. His mind knew that he wasn’t drowning, but his body didn’t. Unconsciously, Ben felt his body jerk upwards and thrash against the men holding him. No matter what, he wouldn’t be the one to break. They could waterboard him all they wanted, but Ben wouldn’t be letting his unit down now. Not when they’d all come this far.

The water stopped for just long enough for Ben to catch his breath before it all started up again.

—----

Eventually, the Green Jackets removed the now sopping wet rag off his face and replaced it with a mildew-smelling sack. They removed him from the table the proceeded to roughly drag him out of the room he had been in and across the rough ground. Normally, Ben would have tried to make at least one escape attempt, but he was still recovering and, on top of that, was exhausted.

Finally, the sack was pulled off his head and the Green Jackets had left him after giving him a final bruise on the side of his head. Ben saw that he’d been left in a room with two metal benches and a stone floor. He wasn’t entirely sure where he was, but he immediately got to work searching for a way out. The door wasn’t much of an option and the windows were too small for him to squeeze through. On top of that, they were fairly high off the ground and had solid-looking bars placed over them.

His best bet would be to wait for someone to come back and open the door. From there he could try and fight his way out, but Ben knew his chances were slim. It would be better to just suck it up and deal with whatever those bastards had in store for him. That was the whole fucking point of this goddamn training anyhow.

Ben sighed and sat down on the bench closest to the door shivering. The adrenaline was finally starting to wear off and the cold and pain were finally catching up with him. He stood up again and started to pace, the movement should warm him up enough. There wasn’t much he could do about the blood, could be worse though. Gently, he reached up and felt his nose to assess the damage done. It wasn’t broken. At least something good had happened to him today!

Now that the immediate danger had passed, Ben’s mind was free to start drifting to thoughts about the rest of the unit. Eagle, Snake, and Wolf would probably be going through the same as him, maybe even worse. For Wolf, Ben wouldn’t put it past him not to say something inflammatory to the wrong person and end up getting the shit beat out of him.

Eagle and Snake wouldn’t make that mistake though. They could keep their tempers under check and would follow protocols.

Out of all of them, Kit would probably get off the easiest. At most, the Green Jackets would leave her in a dark room alone for a while and maybe rough her up a little bit. Nothing permanent, just a few scraps and bruises. In the end, they’d most likely just stick to trying to scare her, not hurt her. Kit was too young to be enlisted anyway. It could very well be that fact alone made the Green Jackets too uncomfortable to put Kit through anything too major. If Ben had been in their shoes, that definitely would have made him back off.

Maybe someone in command had decided to leave her out of this one like that had for shooting practices. Then again if the girl was going on some sort of mission, they would want to make sure that she wouldn’t break under pressure and start giving up whatever information she had. The kid shouldn’t have to deal with any of that bullshit in the first place! Her biggest concern should be getting her homework in on time, planning get-togethers with friends, and other dumb kid stuff like that. Not whether or not she could withstand a full-scale interrogation.

But there wasn’t anything that he could do about that and speculation over what Kit’s mission would be was pointless. It wasn’t like he was ever going to find out what it was anyway. Besides, all it did was cause him additional stress and that wasn’t something that Ben needed any more of.

Ben felt somewhat warmer now that he had been moving around some, he was still shivering but it was less now than it was before. Not too long after, Ben was joined by Eagle, then Snake, and finally Wolf, but no Kit…

Hopefully, Ben’s theory was correct and the girl was sitting this one out.

—----

The cell’s door was flung open and two of the Green Jackets threw a much smaller figure into the room with them. Ben recognized the long blonde head of hair as Kit almost instantly and winced as he saw her head hit the floor hard. Head trauma wouldn’t be doing her any favors for the rest of RTI. At best, she’d feel a bit sick and disorientated, at worst, it could result in all of the being binned and her ending up in the hospital.

Fortunately, Kit didn’t seem too bad outside of her fall, it seemed like he was right that, aside from the hit on the head, they’d been comparatively gentler with her than with-

“Here’s something for you a lot to play with! We’ve already had our turns!”

What? That was not right, he must have misheard them…

“Have fun with her lads!”

Ben felt the disgust mixed with a horrible sinking feeling in his stomach. It didn’t take a genius to guess the double meaning in the Green Jacket’s words. He’d heard much more graphic euphemisms after all his time in the military, but this, this was a whole other level of fucked up! Kit was a child and they were implying that they’d- that he- that the rest of the unit- would assault a child? And those bastards were fucking laughing about it!

Ben knew how brutal RTI could be. He’d heard plenty of horror stories and in some cases had to intervene on the behalf of some of his female friends and colleagues back in the Royal Marines. But it had just never registered to him that Kit would face sexual harassment or anything of the sort. From the looks on Wolf, Snake, and Eagle’s faces told him in an instant they were having similar thoughts.

As the door was shut and locked, Kit picked her head up and looked around the room, her panicked eyes landing on each of the men in turn. Seeing the panic drain away was a relief as she seemed to recognize the rest of the unit. Kit’s face was blushing red and she looked like she was about to cry. That wasn’t a good sign in general, but coming from Kit, it was downright frightening. What must have the Green Jackets done to get her to this point? To be honest, Ben was scared to find out. But he needed to know that Kit was either ok or what had happened so he could help in some way.

Ben stood and walked over to Kit, he didn’t want to crowd or scare the girl so soon after coming out of an interrogation or if there had been assault involved. As he knelt down to help her sit all the way up, he fully noticed the swollen bruises on her wrists and ankles that were unmistakably from handcuffs. There was some blood dripping from cuts along the bruises on the wrists. Presumably, the kid had been trying to escape, not that he would’ve expected any less. That girl was nothing if not proactive.

“You alright Kit? Did they… do anything to you? You know what that was about? Why they said that I mean?” The words felt clumsy and inadequate even as he spoke them, but Ben just had no idea what else he could say to her.

“Yeah- Yeah, I’m good. I’ve got no idea what that was, they didn’t say or do anything like that when I was getting interrogated.”

Ben didn’t believe that for a second and he knew absolutely nobody else in the room believed it either. Something had happened during her interrogation and whatever it was, the girl was trying her best to hide it. By now, Snake had joined them on the floor. Ben stepped back and let Snake get to work, he was a medic after all, and, out of the four of them, Snake had been the least indifferent to outright antagonistic to Kit. She might talk to him, if not here and now, then as soon as RTI was over and when she wasn’t surrounded by other people.

While Ben had been lost in his thoughts, Snake had come over and began to attempt an improvised assessment for all injuries.

“Kit, are you sure about that? You’re not in trouble, you’ve done nothing wrong. If you don’t want to talk now, that’s fine, but you need to tell me.” Snake’s voice was also full of concern, but also held a steely, business-like tone that Alex had started to think of as his ‘medic-voice’. “Now, are you hurt? It looked like you fell pretty hard there.”

“I’m positive. Now, this is RTI training, right? -Get off me, I can walk just fine on my own!- Who are the soldiers and is there an escape plan yet?”

Kit brushed past them and began to move around the room looking for something, most likely an escape route. For a moment, Fox wanted to get up and stop her from wasting her energy on something so pointless but he thought better of it. It was something to keep her occupied.

“Green Jackets, they’re a local regiment. They hate us ‘cause we’re the best, they love this.” Wolf had spoken up, his tone was coarse. “Better yet, if any of us say anything, the whole unit gets binned. That just makes them love this more that does. Bet you blabbed to them, Kit. We’ll all be binned ‘cause of you!”

What the actual fuck! Couldn’t Wolf see that this was so clearly not the time to haze the kid!

“Wolf! Is now really the best time?” Eagle had said what they were all thinking. None of them wanted to have the girl around with them, but none of them wanted her to get seriously hurt or traumatized out of this!

“What? I just want to know if we’re getting binned or not!”

“No, of course I didn’t say anything to them! Now help me clear this!”

The four men glanced at each other and hurried over to assist their youngest teammate in clearing the debris.

“How did you even know this was here?”

“I saw the chimney on my way in here and figured that it could be the way out of here.”

“Kit, if they thought that someone could fit up there they wouldn’t have left it for us to escape through.”

“The Green Jackets were expecting only grown men, not a teenage girl. You lot couldn’t fit, but I definitely can. Trust me; it’ll work!”

Ben shared a look with Wolf, Snake, and Eagle. It was true and none of them were in the mood to argue with the kid right now. Might as well just let her have at it and if it did work out, so much the better for them.

“Alright,” Snake sighed reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small torch. “You’d better take this then. You’re lucky I always sleep with it in my pocket. Just make sure to give it back!”

“Cheers!”

The girl began climbing up the chimney leaving the four men behind to wait.

—----

The debrief was one of the more chaotic ones Ben had been to. Sadly, the worst injuries the Green Jackets sustained were some broken bones, all of which were expected to heal normally and in good time. Shame. He and the rest of K-Unit had been hoping for something more permanent.

Kit still hadn’t told anything about what happened when she was being interrogated. All she’d said was that they’d asked her some questions, hit her, and threatened to torture the rest of the unit in front of her until she complied. It had very little detail and Kit repeated it as though it was a script she’d carefully rehearsed. After the debrief had ended and they’d all made it back to the hut, Ben saw Snake pull her aside and away from the rest of the unit and speak quietly with her for about two minutes before Kit stormed away from him and to her bunk.

It probably wasn’t something that he should be doing or anything that Snake could say for that matter, but Ben couldn’t help himself from asking anyway.

“I know that I shouldn’t be asking you this, medic-patient confidentiality and all that, but did Kit say anything to you?”

“Nothing.” Snake said shaking his head, “Well, she gave me the same story she gave in the debrief.”

“Do you buy it?”

“Do you?”

Despite the seriousness and stress of the past few days, Ben had to give a half smile.

“What she’s saying is plausible, but no. I don’t buy it. Something happened in there.”

“I know what you mean. There’s just not much I can do if she doesn’t want to tell me. I can’t force her to speak to me about it. All I could do was let her know that if she ‘remembers’ anything she could always come to me or anyone of us in the unit or at the very least talk to a female staff member. Even if it is nothing, I’d rather be safe than sorry.”

“Good. Not that I’m surprised she hasn’t said anything to us. It’s not like we’ve been great to her, there’s not a lot of reason why she would want to talk to any of us in the first place.”

Snake had a point, if Ben were in her shoes, he probably wouldn’t have wanted to either. When he was a bit younger than Kit, he remembered how uncomfortable it felt to talk to his older brother, Dylan, whenever he faced issues at school when it came to bullying from some of the older boys. The reason Ben had gone to him instead of his parents or a teacher was that the last thing Ben had wanted was for it to be made a bigger deal than he thought it was. On top of that, his parents would have tried to baby him and that was the last thing that his budding teenage ego could take.

This wasn’t the same situation though and the closest thing that Kit had to a Dylan was a random man who, for the most part, had actively either ignored or acted hostile towards her. Granted, out of all of them, Snake had been the nicest, but he hadn’t gone out of his way to show that to her either.

—----

Later that night, Ben was just stepping into the bathroom. It was one of those rare times when it seemed like he’d be more or less alone at Beacon Brecons for more than five seconds when he wasn’t on a training assignment. Usually when this happened, Ben liked to savor the chance to just be alone with his thoughts, but his brain was frazzled from last night’s events. His whole body felt sore as well, especially his face. Although his nose fortunately hadn’t been broken, it was still quite tender and Ben was hoping that it would feel better after tossing some cold water on it.

That was when he heard a retching sound coming from one of the stalls. Judging from the strangled breathing and slight whimpering sounds, it had to be Kit. There was another retch and the sound of vomiting, never a good sign.

Briefly, Ben wondered if Kit did have a concussion after all and it had somehow slipped past Snake and the rest of the medics who’d checked her after RTI. No, that was highly likely. More likely it was all the nerves and stress of last night finally catching up with her.

Ben stood outside the stall door for a moment trying to decide if he should check up on the kid or if it’d be better for him to leave Kit be and let her have her space. The second choice would ultimately end up with him getting hospitalized by Snake if there was something wrong and he did nothing, so Ben raised his fist and knocked softly on the door.

“Hey Kit, that you?”

No response, the girl seemed to have become very still and quiet all of a sudden.

“It’s just me. Fox. Are you ok?”

The door swung open and Ben stepped back to avoid being hit. Kit was brushed past him while walking towards a sink with her eyes facing the floor. He couldn’t make out much of her face, but from what he could tell, she was pale and exhausted.

“I’m good! Think I just ate something at dinner. That’s all.”

Even her voice sounded shakier than usual as she washed her hands and then proceeded to splash the water on her face still determinitely ignoring him.

“You know a lot of the guys have trouble with RTI… I know plenty of them who have had to talk with somebody after!”

Kit stiffened at the sudden noise, Ben didn’t know why he’d just blurted that out. It was true, but it was rather sudden and to Kit probably had seemingly come completely out of the blue from a man who’d up until now had been very cold to her. He definitely was not the right person to be trying to have this talk with her. That should be Snake the man actually knew what he was talking about!

“Fox, thanks for the information, but nothing happened and I’m fine.”

Kit’s voice was cold, not overly rude, but definately dismissive.

“It’s nothing to be -”

“I said I’m fine!”

With that, Kit stormed past Ben slamming the door on her way out. It was all quite on brand for a teenager. At least that was normal behavior… Not that Kit had ever displayed that side around any of them, but it was still expected for her age.

He should have just let it be. Snake was right, if Kit had wanted help, she would have accepted it in the first place. God why didn’t he just shut up!

Ben splashed cold water on his face, but instead of making him feel better, he jerked away panting. It reminded him too much of being handcuffed down to that table and being waterboarded. Taking deep breaths, Ben looked in the mirror. It was still very soon after, he’d be fine eventually. He just needed some time.

Chapter Text

About two days had passed since RTI and her run-in with Fox and now Alex was sitting in a military transport plane with a parachute that she’d packed herself on her back watching the men around her take their turns jumping out and into the night. Fortunately, Alex was sitting out of this exercise, it seemed that someone, most likely the same person who’d stopped her from participating in shooting training, had stopped her from jumping along with them last minute. Apparently, they couldn’t risk Alex breaking an arm which could only mean that she was nearing the end of her training. Still, though, the instructors had her along to observe just for the experience. After all, Alex had already done the training leading up to taking the jump. She might as well see how it was done in person.

It would be a relief to finally leave SAS training, at first, K-Unit had done their best to make her life there as isolating and miserable as possible. Now they treated her like she was a live explosive that could go off at any minute. Alex almost wished that they’d go back to the bullying her, that would’ve been less jarring for her to deal with everyday. All Alex wanted to do was move on and forget that the interrogation with the Green Jackets had ever happened. It didn’t matter now, it was over! But they, mostly Snake and Fox, had been hell-bent on bringing it up over and over again! They’d stopped bringing it up after what happened in the bathroom with Fox.

What had finally snapped, Alex didn’t know. She didn’t feel too bad about how she’d acted, however. In her opinion, she’d earned the right to finally put her foot down and tell at least one of the many assholes in her life to fuck off in some way. The look of shock on the man’s face had made it worth it! He didn’t seem to expect Alex to have a breaking point. It felt good to feel like she could take some modicum control back finally.

Whether or not any of them actually cared was also another question. It all could have just been some ploy to get her binned in some way, maybe it was all another test to see if she’d keep her mouth shut. Alex wouldn’t put it past SAS or MI6 at this point, it also could have been genuine concern. Either way, Alex wouldn’t be taking any chances now that she was so close! A lot was riding on this for her, and for that matter, Jack. The sooner she got this stupid mission over with, the sooner she’d go back to Jack and Tom and her home and school. She couldn’t let anyone sabotage it for her now!

The instructor whistled for the next pair to make their jump and they did so without hesitation. Alex looked around the plane’s interior. It was only herself, Wolf, Wolf’s jump partner (a man from B-Unit called ‘Otter’), and an instructor. It was about then that Alex noticed how pale Wolf looked, he had a shine of sweat on his brow. The instructor motioned for them to come to the open hatch way.

Wolf rose and for a second, he and Alex made eye contact and Alex was shocked to see actual fear in the older man’s eyes. She hadn’t even thought that fear was something Wolf could feel! What could be making Wolf look so afraid? Then it hit her, Wolf might be a popular leader, he might have the best times on the obstacle course, he might be able make a 24 kilometer hike wearing a backpack about half his weight look like a walk in the park, but Wolf was afraid of heights!

Would he even be able to make the jump? If he backed out now he’d be binned. Alex might not have liked the man much at all, but that didn’t mean she wanted him, or any of the other members of K-Unit for that matter, to be binned! She watched as Wolf and Otter made their way to the opening of the plane only about a meter in front of her. The instructor blew the whistle and Otter jumped out of the plane, but Wolf remained in place fiddling with a piece of equipment. If she hadn’t known better, Alex would’ve assumed that he was only fixing or readjusting, it was clear to her that he was only playing for time while he tried to gather his courage.

If he didn’t jump soon, that’d be it for him and Wolf clearly knew it, but he was still standing paralyzed at the edge of the opening. The instructor wasn’t looking at them, he’d bent down to fix something on the floor of the plane. There wasn’t much time left if he looked up and Wolf hadn’t made his move-

Alex unbuckled her seat strap, leaned forward, and whispered “Wolf!” as loudly as she could without drawing the attention of the instructor. Wolf’s head jerked up and Alex struck out with her foot kicking Wolf firmly in the backside! The force of the kick was enough momentum to cause Wolf to stumble and subsequently fall out before he could make a sound. There was no doubt in Alex’s mind that Wolf’s training would kick in then and he’d be able to make it through the rest just fine on his own.

It wasn’t a moment too soon, the moment after Wolf had fallen out of sight, the instructor looked up and saw Alex’s outstretched leg.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“Just stretching my legs sir!”

—----

The sun had begun to rise as Mrs. Jones led Alex out of the administrative building and into the morning chill after the briefing towards a nondescript, unmarked black car with blacked-out windows. Alex had been given the chance to shower and was also given a fresh pair of clothes. Unlike the extremely oversized fatigues she’d had to wear for the past two weeks, these were normal, properly fitting clothes that any other teenager would wear. They might have been simple blue jeans with a plain dark green T-shirt and black hoodie, but to Alex, they were a breath of fresh air.

Looking in the mirror afterward as she applied the long-lasting concealer Mrs. Jones had given her to all the visible cuts and bruises littering her exposed skin, Alex almost felt like her old self again. She had also given herself the freedom to leave her hair done around her mid-back.

They were about halfway to the car when Alex’s path was blocked by Wolf. Mrs. Jones was several paces ahead and turned around looking impatient, but she didn’t interrupt.

“So,” Wolf started uncomfortably, “This is it then. You’re off on your mission.”

It wasn’t a question, but a statement of fact.

“I am.”

“Listen, about what happened on the plane-”

“Nothing happened. You jumped. I didn’t. Simple as that.”

Wolf’s shoulders relaxed a little and he gave her a small half smile.

“Thanks for that Kit, I appreciate it. Also,” He hesitated slightly before speaking again, “I’m- I’m sorry for how I treated you. The rest of the boys are as well.”

That was not something that Alex had been expecting! She felt her face heat up slightly, there was no way that this was all because of the plane no matter how much she’d saved his ass. Wolf stretched out his hand for her to shake and Alex took it.

“Good luck on your mission. Hope we meet again someday!”

“Yeah, likewise.” That was a lie, but Alex couldn’t see a next time happening in the first place and she got the sense that Wolf felt that way as well. There was no harm in carrying on the lie. “Good luck with the rest of training!”

Wolf let go of her hand, and with a final nod, he made his way back to where the rest of K-Unit was standing next to a military truck that must have brought them back from their jump sites. Snake, Eagle, and Fox had been watching the interaction between herself and Wolf. Snake raised his hand in farewell, while Fox nodded and Eagle gave her a thumbs up. That had to be the most encouragement she’d gotten in the past two weeks! This was too strange… Alex waved goodbye and followed Mrs. Jones the rest of the way to the car, got in the back seat, and buckled herself in.

As they drove out of the camp, Alex allowed her head to rest on the cold window and stared out of it. The sky was a beautiful soft pink, fading up to pale cobolt, and highlighted by the golden light of the rising sun. Alex flashed back to a camping trip she’d been on with Ian and Jack around this time last year. The morning they had left to go back to London, the sky had been that exact same color…

—----

When Wolf and the rest of K-Unit returned to their hut, night had fallen. They didn’t have to be as careful as they had been about stripping off their sweat-soaked clothes in exchange for fresh ones as they had been when Kit was still around. Her bunk was still there, but unlike it had been the night before, it was empty along with the footlocker.

Wolf had wanted the brat to be gone the moment he laid eyes on her. She hadn’t belonged here then and she certainly hadn’t up until the moment she left. He signed and ran his hand down his face. At least when the girl was here she wasn’t out there on some bullshit mission doing lord knows what.

Why was Wolf even thinking that? It wasn’t like she would be that much better off at Brecon Beacons than not! RTI had proved that… he’d gone to the Sergent about it afterward with Eagle at his heels. The Sergent had tensed and narrowed his eyes when Wolf told him what the Green Jackets had said and Eagle had corroborated it. The man was angry, but not at them or Kit (though there was absolutely no reason the Sergeant would have been angry with her). He asked them if Kit had said anything to them or anyone else yet, neither of them knew, but suspected that she hadn’t.

The Sergent had told them that an investigation would be opened and that the allegations would not be taken lightly. Apparently they were still reviewing the footage from RTI and the Green Jackets who Kit had pushed off a cliff were still in hospital, but the moment the oppertunity presented itself, they would be brought in for thorough questioning.

That wasn’t to say that the investigation would get very far for whatever reason. What mattered was that there was a report in. Then there was Kit herself, she’d yet to personally make a complaint or report which would definitely complicate matters to some extent. At this point though, there wasn’t much left that Wolf or the rest of K-Unit could do. Due to privacy and such, they wouldn’t be given much information on the situation here on out. They’d just have to take comfort in the knowledge that something was happening.

God! Wolf hated everything about this situation, especially the feeling of being out of control. It was the same feeling he had after Kit had kicked him out of the plane, the feeling of free fall. There was nothing that he had been able to do except pull the cord and hope that the thin fabric of the parachut would come through and do it’s job. He had been powerless and Wolf hated that.

He was the big brother at home. It was his job to solve problems, to make stuff work. If one of his siblings had an issue, they’d all gone to him. Had he always been the best older brother? That depended on perspective. There was a strong case to be made for terrorizing one’s younger siblings as being a key element of the eldest sibling’s job. That didn’t negate the fact that Wolf had been the problem solver. When Isabel had been younger, she’d always acted like her big brother could handle anything and Wolf had almost believed her. Even before he entered SAS training, his friends and previous units had also grown to see him as being in control in almost any situation. But when the brat had been here, he’d felt the rug be pulled out from under him and there was so little he could do. Wolf realized he’d been staring at the empty bunk for almost half a minute. The others had noticed as well and Eagle was the one to break the silence.

“Strange to think it’s almost weird now not having the kid underfoot 24/7 anymore. Would’ve thought you’d be more excited to see her gone Wolf, don’t tell me you’re getting sentimental!”

Wolf grunted in response. In truth, he also would’ve thought that exact same thing. He should have been feeling that, not this sense of dread rising and bubbling in his stomach.

“She’s someone else’s problem now I guess.” Fox cut in. “Still wonder what it is they have her doing out there… My best guess would be as a cover or doing reconnaissance, most likely not even out of the country.”

“And that makes it better now, does it?”

Wolf hadn’t meant his voice to sound so cold, but part of him couldn’t help it. The way Fox sounded was as if he didn’t realize what the implications of this was.

“That’d not what I meant! It’s just that-”

“There’s no need to start any of this now. In a few more days our training will be over and we’ll be sent out. Right now we should be focusing on saving our energy. The Sergent could always still bin us up until we’ve graduated. Let’s all get sleep now and argue later, alright?”

Snake made a good point, but that didn’t mean that Wolf was content to let this go. Fox, on the other hand, looked relieved to not have to debate Wolf after a long day’s hard training. To be honest, Wolf could relate to that. It had been a long day and he was exhausted. All an argument with Fox would accomplish was a headache and resentment at a time when both were wholly unnecessary.

“I just hope the kid makes it through alright. That’s all.” Wolf said quietly.

“So do I.”

And Fox meant it too. They all had known that something had been wrong, now it was completely out of reach for either of them to do anything about it.

Chapter Text

Alex was still damp from the jellyfish tank. The water had made her clothes and hair stick to her body uncomfortably, but she ignored it. It was quite literally a life or death situation, not just for her, but for millions of others. Alex would have to move fast and soon. Quietly, she slipped from her hiding spot in the plane and pulled out the handgun she’d stolen from one of the guards. As she crept towards the cockpit, Alex began making calculations.

She’d need to get close to Grin, but not too close. She’d learned firsthand how fast the man could move and Alex couldn’t take any chances, not with so many lives at stake when she’d only have one chance at this. Now, Alex was standing in the doorway between the cockpit and the rest of the plane. Grin still didn’t seem to notice her, taking a deep breath, Alex pointed her gun directly at the back of the man’s head and began to speak in as calm, yet firm, of a voice that she could manage.

“Don’t move! You’re going to fly me to London, the Science Museum to be exact!”

—----

Wolf was in pain. Not physical pain, but psychological pain. He was so damn bored! When Wolf had been recruited for SAS training, he’d been enthusiastic. He’d wanted to serve his adopted country his whole life and now, after years of hard work and dedication, he was finally doing that as one of it’s most elite soldiers!

The only problem was when he had seen himself serving the UK, Wolf had been out somewhere on some distant continent couragiously fighting some distant, faceless enemy who hated his country enough to resort to acts of depravity and violence. The reality was far less romantic than he had envisioned it.

No, Wolf was not somewhere far, far away. He was stuck on babysitting duty at the London Science Museum. The London bloody Science Museum! It wasn’t as if this level of security wasn’t unwarranted. There was some sort of suspected terrorist attack expected to happen. The details were still unknown, but what was known was that Sayle had something to do with all this.

So, Wolf would keep his guard up, he was a professional. He hadn’t put all that blood, sweat, and tears into this only to fuck up his first mission because he was careless. He’d been on alert for the past three hours. The radio had been mostly static aside from the occasional update on the non-existent situation or orders to either check some potentially suspect individual out or investigate an area that was just out of reach of some camera or another.

After what could have been five hours, but had been about forty-five minutes, introduction speakers had finally finished droning on and on about the new Stormbreaker project and Mr. Sayle and the Prime Minister stood and walked across the stage. If something was going to happen, it most likely would be now.

Wolf had just tuned back into what they were saying while scanning the crowd. No, there was nothing yet…

That’s when a load crash jolted Wolf’s senses and sent him into high alert. Someone had parachuted through the skylight! The audience had scattered and Wolf surged forward with the rest of the team he was with. This was it! This was the attack! He hadn’t had a chance to fully process who the person was who was hanging from the roof, but on closer inspection, he realized that it was a woman -scratch that, a girl more like- blond hair-

The recognition hit Wolf like a truck. Kit! He was looking up at Kit! How-? What-? Why-? She was supposed to be on some bloody mission as a cover for an adult agent or something! What the actual fuck?

It took approximately half a second for the shock to wear off and Wolf became aware of a buzzing in his earpiece.

‘Don’t shoot! I repeat do not shoot! She’s one of ours!’

“Wolf! The gun!”

This was too much. He’d been trained for this, sure, but he hadn’t been prepared for little Double-Oh-Nothing to crash through the bloody ceiling and start shouting for a gun. The SAS would need to update their training protocols…

“Give me the bloody gun now!”

Kit’s scream cut through his thoughts and pulled him back to reality. He didn’t think. He just acted. It might end up being the biggest mistake of his life, but fuck it. This was no time to think, only to act and trust his teammate. Kit caught the gun and instantly pointed it at the Prime Minister and fired hitting Sayle in the hand. In the ensuing confusion, the Prime Minister ended up being punched in the face and Sayle had disappeared. By the time that Kit had been cut down and the gun had been taken away, the girl had been hustled into a nondescript black car by several black suits.

Wolf had been trying to push his way over to see the girl, to make sure that she was alright, but he hadn’t gotten that chance. He was so fucked! He’d been the one to toss his gun to a literal child! What actual fuck had he been thinking? He was so fired!

He practically jumped out of his skin when someone tapped his shoulder. It was a serious-looking woman who appeared to be sucking on a peppermint. He straightened and stood at attention. It was the woman who’d taken Kit away after the jump only a few days before!

“Mrs. Jones, Special Operations” The woman, Mrs. Jones, supplied. “I’d like to have some words with you. You’re not in trouble, I know that you were teammates with ‘Kit’ at the Brecon Beacons. I’d like to ask you a few questions, but not now. There are other matters to be attended to first. I just wanted to let you know ahead of time.”

As Mrs. Jones turned to walk away, she paused and looked over her shoulder at him.

“I’d also strongly recommend you not tell anyone else about ‘Kit’. I don’t think you’d like the consequences of what would happen to you if you did.”

With that, Mrs. Jones disappeared into the crowd leaving Wolf to stand dumbstruck. So the girl had been with Special Operations. Just who the fuck was that kid?

—----

Harrod Sayle’s blood pooled around his body and Alex had to turn away from his blank, grey eyes. They were just as, if not more, hideous than they were when he was alive. She felt sick. It wasn’t just the blood, eyes, and corpse though, it was also the man standing in front of her.

Yassen Gregorovich. The man who’d murdered her uncle, who had killed the man for dropping a crate, who had killed Sayle, who would have killed millions of school children without blinking an eye, and who was now standing before her quite literally holding a smoking gun. He had saved her from Sayle, but why? So he could be the one to kill her? Alex didn’t care about him killing Sayle, the world was better off without him anyhow, but he had killed her uncle. He had murdered Ian! This man had effectively destroyed her life and was in some way responsible for her being in this mess right now! Painfully white-hot hatred seared a hole through her stomach and tears of anger burned her eyes, but she refused to cry in any way in front of the monster standing before her.

“Are you going to kill me too?”

Gregorovich tilted his head to the side like a confused puppy. His blue eyes narrowed and a frown appeared on his face.

“No. I don’t kill children.”

“You murdered Ian Rider. He was my uncle. One day, I’ll kill you.”

A small smile broke across his face and there was a touch of humor in his eyes. What did he have to smile about? What did he find funny? Heat spread across her face and despite herself, she felt embarrassed. He had the nerve to find her amusing!

“Is that so Little Alex? No, I think not. Go back to school, forget about me. Killing is for the grown-ups and you’re still a child.”

With that, Yassen turned and climbed into the cockpit of the helicopter. His helmet concealed his face, but before he raised his hand goodbye. Alex mirrored his action. It felt surreal, much to civil an end for it all.

The sound of the rooftop door bursting open and men’s voices shouting roughly pulled Alex from the moment and back to reality. The calvery had finally arrived it seemed. Just too late to actually be useful…

Yassen Gregorovich was already gone.